Myanmar elections unlikely to see credible outcome, EU human rights rep says
International monitors have dismissed Myanmar’s upcoming election as a ploy to legitimise continuing military rule.
PHOTO: AFP
Published Oct 17, 2025, 07:21 PM
KUALA LUMPUR – The European Union will not send observers to Myanmar’s upcoming election in late December, its top human rights official Kajsa Ollongren said on Oct 17, dismissing the vote as neither free nor fair and urging South-east Asian nations to push for change.
Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has touted
the Dec 28 election as a path to reconciliation in the civil war he sparked by snatching power in a 2021 coup.
But international monitors, including a UN expert and Amnesty International, have dismissed the vote as a ploy to legitimise continuing military rule.
“We’re calling upon all neighbouring countries, including the Asean countries, to really firmly push for a change of course,” said Ms Ollongren.
“As long as Myanmar is unstable, as long as it’s sort of a source of instability for the whole region, it should be the number one concern… for the Asean countries,” she told AFP in an interview in the Malaysian capital.
Ms Ollongren’s call comes ahead of a major Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur next week, where the issue of
sending election observers to represent the 10-nation bloc is expected to be discussed.
Asean has been battling to implement
a five-point plan, which calls, among other issues, for an immediate ceasefire.
Myanmar elections unlikely to see credible outcome, EU human rights rep says
By Danial Azhar
October 16, 20255
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 (Reuters) – The European Union’s Special Representative for Human Rights Kajsa Ollongren said on Thursday that the grouping had no plans to send observers to an election in military-ruled Myanmar, as it was unlikely to result in a credible outcome.
Critics – including many Western nations – have described the election due to start in late December as a sham exercise aimed at legitimising the Myanmar junta’s rule after it overthrew a civilian democratic government in 2021.
